Customizing an online shopping experience for a user

ABSTRACT

A method for customizing an online shopping experience for a user is disclosed. The method includes receiving at a marketplace system a request from a user system to transmit instructions for a rendering by the user system of a predetermined user interface relating to a product, using a processor to select one of a plurality of other user interfaces relating to the product, and transmitting to the user system instructions for the rendering by the user system of the one of the plurality of other user interfaces.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/374,195, filed Aug. 16, 2010, entitled “CUSTOMIZING AN ONLINESHOPPING EXPERIENCE FOR A USER,” which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates generally to the technical field ofonline marketing, and, in one specific example, to customizing an onlineshopping experience for a user based on information about the user.

BACKGROUND

When a user accesses a web site via a network and clicks on an onlineadvertisement associated with, for example, a particular set of keywordsthe user entered into a search box, the clicking of the onlineadvertisement may direct the user to a separate web site related to thesubject of the advertisement (e.g., a product) without taking intoconsideration information about the user (e.g., the Internet orgeographic location of the user or a behavior of the user with respectto a web site hosting the particular web page) or a likelihood that theweb site presented to the user (as opposed to other web sites) wouldinduce the user to conclude a transaction related to the subject of theadvertisement. The end result is the user is less likely to conclude atransaction related to the subject of the advertisement than if the userhad been directed to a customized shopping experience (e.g., a web site)that was selected from a group of customized shopping experiences andtailored as much as possible to the user (e.g., based on a profile ofthe user with respect to the web site or based on success rates of eachof the group of customized shopping experiences in inducing other usersto conclude other transactions related to the subject of theadvertisement).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation inthe figures of the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example environment in which asystem to customize an online shopping experience for a user may beexecuting;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment of theonline shopping customization system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment of thedatabase of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a user record 404included in the user database of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an example embodiment of a method for providing a user with acustomized online shopping experience;

FIG. 6 is an example embodiment of the selecting operation of the methodof FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example machine on which components ofvarious embodiments of the system may be executed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide an understanding ofvarious embodiments of the inventive subject matter. It will be evident,however, to those skilled in the art that embodiments may be practicedwithout these specific details. Further, well-known instructioninstances, protocols, structures, and techniques have not been shown indetail. As used herein, the term “or” is to be construed in an inclusiveor exclusive sense. The term “product” herein refers to a good or aservice of which one or more specimens are listed by a network-basedpublication system (e.g., as being available for purchase). Examples ofproducts include a specific brand of shaver having a specific modelnumber, a specific brand of gaming console having a specific color, or aspecific brand of digital recorder having a specific storage capacity.Other examples of products include downloadable data (e.g., video,music, or an electronic book), an authorization to use downloadable data(e.g., a license), and an obligation to perform a service (e.g.,technology consulting or an astrology reading).

As used herein, the term “item” is to be construed as a specimen of aproduct. Examples of items include a particular shaver, a particulargaming console, or a particular digital recorder. Other examples ofitems include a particular copy of downloadable data (e.g., a videofile, a music file, or electronic book file), a particular authorizationallowing a particular person to use downloadable data, and a particularobligation to perform a service for a particular person. The phrase“marketplace system” is to be construed as an electronic commerce system(e.g., EBAY®, AMAZON®, or CRAIGSLIST®).

A method for customizing an online shopping experience for a user isdisclosed. The method may include receiving at a marketplace system arequest from a user system to transmit instructions for a rendering bythe user system of a predetermined user interface relating to a product;using a processor to select one of a plurality of other user interfacesrelating to the product, a rendering of the one of the plurality ofother user interfaces by the user system having a first probability ofincreasing revenues of a marketplace system, a rendering of thepredetermined user interface by the user system having a secondprobability of increasing the revenues of the marketplace system, theselecting based on a determination that the first probability is greaterthan the second probability, the revenues of the marketplace systembased on sales of specimens of the product; and transmitting to the usersystem instructions for the rendering by the user system of the one ofthe plurality of other user interfaces.

A system for customizing an online shopping experience for a user isdisclosed. The system may include a processor; a reception module toreceive at a marketplace system a request from a user system to transmitinstructions for a rendering by the user system of a predetermined userinterface relating to a product; a selection module to select one of aplurality of other user interfaces relating to the product; a renderingof the one of the plurality of other user interfaces by the user systemhaving a first probability of increasing revenues of a marketplacesystem, a rendering of the predetermined user interface by the usersystem having a second probability of increasing the revenues of themarketplace system, the selecting based on a determination that thefirst probability is greater than the second probability, the revenuesof the marketplace system based on sales of specimens of the product;and a transmission module to transmit to the user system instructionsfor the rendering by the user system of the one of the plurality ofother user interfaces.

Disclosed is a machine-readable storage medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed by one or more processors of a machine, causes themachine to perform a method. The method may include receiving at amarketplace system a request from a user system to transmit instructionsfor a rendering by the user system of a predetermined user interfacerelating to a product; using a processor to select one of a plurality ofother user interfaces relating to the product, a rendering of the one ofthe plurality of other user interfaces by the user system having a firstprobability of increasing revenues of a marketplace system, a renderingof the predetermined user interface by the user system having a secondprobability of increasing the revenues of the marketplace system, theselecting based on a determination that the first probability is greaterthan the second probability, the revenues of the marketplace systembased on sales of specimens of the product; and transmitting to the usersystem instructions for the rendering by the user system of the one ofthe plurality of other user interfaces.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example environment 100 inwhich a system to customize an online shopping experience for a user(e.g., online shopping customization system 110) may be executing. Theenvironment 100 may include a search engine system 102, a marketplacesystem 104, a database system 106, other systems 108, a network 112, auser system 124, or a user 134. The user 134 may be a user of any of thesystems 102, 104, 106, 108, or 124. The online shopping customizationsystem 110 may be included in the marketplace system 104.

An entity associated with the marketplace system 104 may establishadvertising contracts with entities associated with the search enginesystem 102 or entities associated with the other systems 108. Forexample, the owner of the marketplace system 104 may establish anadvertising contract with the owner of the search engine system 102 forthe search engine system 102 to present an advertisement in the form ofa listing (e.g., a paid search result) that the search engine system 102includes in a search results listing when the users use the searchengine system 102 to perform a search that includes particular keywords(e.g., keywords associated with a particular product). As anotherexample, the owner of the marketplace system 104 may establish anadvertising contract with an owner of a comparison-shopping system ofthe other systems 108 for the comparison-shopping system to integrate anadvertisement into a user interface associated with thecomparison-shopping system when the users browse the comparison-shoppingsystem for a particular product.

The user 134 may access the search engine system 102, the marketplacesystem 104, the database system 106, or the other systems 108 via theuser system 124 or the network 112. For example, the user may access asystem (e.g., the search engine system 102) using a web browserapplication (e.g., Windows® Internet Explorer®) executing on a personalcomputer. In response, the user may be presented with the advertisement.The advertisement may relate to a product having specimens for sale onthe marketplace system 104. The advertisement may be served by themarketplace system 104. The advertisement may be provided to the systems102, 106, or 108 by the marketplace system 104 for serving by thesystems 102, 106, or 108, respectively. The advertisement may be paidfor by the entity associated with the marketplace system 104. The user134 may express an interest in the subject of the advertisement byperforming an action with respect to the advertisement. For example, theuser 134 may click on the advertisement. It will be apparent to those ofordinary skill in the art in view of this disclosure that the user 134may use other means for performing an action with respect to theadvertisement.

The user 134 action of clicking on the advertisement may cause the user134 to become connected to the marketplace system 104. For example, theclicking may cause a web browser application executing on the usersystem 124 to access (e.g., in the current window, a new window, or anew tab of the current window) a predetermined landing page of a website associated with the marketplace system 104. The marketplace systemmay intercept the accessing of the predetermined landing page toredirect the user to a customized landing page (e.g., via the onlineshopping customization system 110). The customized landing page may beselected from a group of landing pages based on information about theuser (e.g., information about the user maintained by the search enginesystem 102, the marketplace system 104, or the other systems 108). Theinformation about the user may be contained in database system 106. Theinformation about the user may be contained in other databases (notshown). The customized landing page may be selected from the group oflanding pages based on success rates (or conversion rates) of each ofthe group of landing pages in inducing other users to complete othertransactions (e.g., transactions related to the product). Thus, themarketplace system may not only provide the user with a customizedonline shopping experience, thus potentially increasing a satisfactionof the user with the marketplace system 104, but also have a greaterlikelihood of inducing the user 134 to complete a transaction, thuspotentially increasing revenues for the marketplace system 104 (e.g.,via a collection of transaction fees related to the sale of a specimenof the product).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment of theonline shopping customization system 110 of FIG. 1. The online shoppingcustomization system 110 may include a reception module 202, acollection module 204, a selection module 206, a contextualizationmodule 210, an adaption module 212, a customization module 214, or atransmission module 216.

The reception module 202 may detect or receive a notification of theinteraction by the user 134 with the advertisement. For example, thereception module 202 may detect that an application executing on theuser system 124 has requested that the marketplace system transmitinstructions to the application related to a rendering of a particularuser interface on the user system 124. The particular user interface maybe a user interface that was predetermined to be presented to users whenthey click on the advertisement. The particular user interface may be alanding page of a web site associated with the marketplace system. Thereception module 202 may identify an association between theadvertisement and an advertising campaign. The reception module 202 mayidentify one or more sets of attributes, sets of rules, or sets ofmarketing segments associated with the advertisement or the advertisingcampaign.

The reception module 202 may identify the user 134. For example, thereception module may identify the user based on a globally uniqueidentifier (GUID) associated with the user. The GUID may be based on anidentifier of a user system (e.g., the user system 124) via which theuser clicked on the advertisement. The GUID may be shared by the networkdestinations. For example, the GUID may allow the information that isknown by the marketplace system 104 about the user 134 to be correlatedwith information that is known by the search engine system 102 about theuser 134. The reception module 202 may look up information about theuser 134 that corresponds to the one or more sets of attributesassociated with the advertisement or the advertising campaign. Forexample, the reception module 202 may look up an age or sex of the user.Additionally, the reception module 202 may look up a specific number ofrecent activities of the user 134, such as the last keywords/queriesused, the last contributors viewed, the last categories accessed, thelast aspects viewed, the last items watched, the last items viewed, thelast products watched, the last products viewed, the last sellersviewed, and so on. The reception module 202 may perform the looking upof the information about the user 134 using an application programinterface (API) associated with the collection module 204 (e.g., a userprofiling interface). The reception module 202 may provide the result ofthe looking up of the information about the user 134 to the selectionmodule 206.

The collection module 204 may retrieve information about the user 134.The information about the user may be maintained by any of the systems102, 104, or 108. The information about the user may be stored in thedatabase system 106 or other databases. For example, the collectionmodule 204 may retrieve the values corresponding to the one or more setsof attributes associated with the advertisement or the advertisingcampaign. The retrieving of a value of an attribute for a user may beperformed in response to a calling of the API of the collection module204 (e.g., the user profiling interface) by another module (e.g., thereception module 202). The value of the attribute may be provided to theother module in response to the calling of the API or the retrieving ofthe value of the attribute. The collection module 204 may support aquerying of values associated with accesses by the user 134 of multiplesites (or domains). In other words, the values may be an aggregation ofvalues from multiple domains. For example, the values associated with across-domain query for the last 10 products watched by the user 134 maybe an aggregation of values associated with accesses by the user 134 ofa first domain in the United States and accesses by the user 134 of asecond domain in the United Kingdom. The values may be specific to asingle site. For example, the values associated with a single-domainquery for the last 6 items watched by the user 134 may include valuesassociated with accesses by the user 134 of the first domain only or thesecond domain only.

Additionally, the values may be specific to a scope of access of theuser 134 with respect to the single site or the multiple sites. Forexample, the values may correspond to non-session-specific data (e.g.,persistent data), session-specific data, or user-specific datamaintained by the user system 124 or the systems 102, 104, 106, or 108.The collection module 204 may apply de-duplication logic to ensure thateach attribute is associated with a single value. The collection module204 may retrieve values related to a specific scope of access based on alikelihood that the values represent activity of a single user ormultiple users. For example, if multiple users access a user system, andthe GUID associated with the user is based on an identifier of the usersystem, non-session-specific data may be contaminated with data frommultiple users. In this case, the collection module 204 may retrievevalues corresponding to user-specific or session-specific data insteadof the persistent data. The collection module 204 may aggregate dataacross multiple systems. For example, if the search engine system 102and the marketplace system 104 use the same GUID to identify the user,the collection module 204 may correlate user data from the search enginesystem 102 and data from the marketplace system 104. The correlation ofthe user data may serve as the basis of aggregating the data acrossmultiple systems.

The selection module 206 may select a user interface from a group ofuser interfaces for rendering on the client machine. The selected userinterface may be different from the user interface requested by theapplication executing on the user system 124. The selecting of the userinterface by the selection module 206 may be in response to a requestingby the user system 124 that the marketplace system transmit instructionsfor a rendering of a predetermined user interface associated with aproduct. The selection module 206 may select the selected user interfacerandomly. The selection module 206 may select the selected userinterface based on various factors. For example, the selection module206 may select the selected user interface based on the selected userinterface incorporating elements of a user interface of the system theuser 134 was accessing when the user clicked on the advertisement. Thus,if the user 134 clicks on the advertisement while browsing a web page atshopping.com, the selection module 206 may redirect user 134 to alanding page associated with the marketplace system 104 that is similarto (e.g., has a similar look or feel as) the web page at shopping.com.

The selection module 206 may select the user interface based on theinformation about the user 134. The selection module 206 may receiveinformation about the user 134 from another module. For example, theselection module 206 may receive information about the user 134 from thereception module 202 or the collection module 204. The selection module206 may retrieve information about the user 134 from the database system106. The selection module 206 may select the user interface based on atransaction history of the user 134 with respect to the marketplacesystem 104. For example, if the user 134 has concluded transactionsprimarily with respect to items having prices fixed by sellers (asopposed to items having prices set in auctions), the selection module206 may select the user interface based on a determination that the userinterface focuses on presenting information about the product in afixed-price format. Alternatively, if the user 134 has concludedtransactions primarily with respect to items having prices set in anauction, the selection module 206 may select the user interface based ona determination that the user interface focuses on presentinginformation about the product in an auction format.

The selection module 206 may select the user interface based on aprobability that the user 134 will conclude a transaction related to theproduct after being presented with the user interface. The probabilitymay be based on histories of transactions of other users on themarketplace system 104. For example, for each of the user interfaces inthe group of user interfaces, the selection module 206 may determine apercentage of other users that concluded a transaction with respect to aproduct associated with the advertisement after being presented with theuser interface. In other words, the selection module 206 may determine aconversion rate for each of the user interfaces in the group of userinterfaces. Thus, the selection module 206 may select the user interfacebased on the user interface having the highest conversion rate of theuser interfaces in the group of user interfaces. The selection module206 may select the user interface based on a determination that aconversion rate for the user interface is not reliable. The reliabilityof the conversion rate for a user interface may be based on the numberof times the user interface has been presented to other users. If thisnumber is less than a threshold number, the conversion rate for the userinterface may be considered unreliable. Thus, the selection module 206may select the user interface to increase a reliability of theconversion rate of the user interface. The selection module 206 mayselect the user interface based on a correlation between the userinterface and various other data, including non-user-specific data(e.g., a date or a time of day).

The contextualization module 210 may identify a user interface contextfrom which the user 134 performed an action that triggered a sending ofthe request. A user interface context may include an appearance or abehavior associated with a user interface of the search engine system102 or one of the other systems 108 (e.g., a comparison-shoppingsystem). A user interface context may include a flow of activities ofthe user 134 with respect the search engine system 102 or one of theother systems 108.

For example, while comparing prices of specimens of the product via auser interface associated with a comparison-shopping system, the user134 may click on the advertisement. In this case, the user 134 may bemore inclined to buy a particular specimen of the product (e.g., anavailable specimen having a same price as the particular specimenadvertised on the comparison-shopping system) if the selected userinterface focuses on a view of an available specimen of the product. Inother words, the user 134 may be less likely to purchase the particularspecimen of the product if the selected user interface focuses on asearch results listing of multiple specimens of the product, each havingdifferent prices, because the user has already conducted such a searchusing the comparison-shopping system. Thus, the user interface context(in this case, the flow of the activities of the user 134) may suggestthat the selected user interface include specific user interfaceelements (e.g., a view of a particular specimen of a product), but notinclude others (e.g., a search listing of multiple specimens of theproduct).

As another example, while searching for information about a product viathe search-engine system 102, the user may click on the advertisement.In this case, the user may not expect the selected user interface toinclude a view of a particular specimen of the product. Instead, theuser may expect the selected user interface to include a search listingof multiple specimens of the product (e.g., such that the user cancompare specimens or prices of specimens view the selected userinterface).

As another example, if the user clicks on the advertisement whileshopping for specimens of the product via a user interface associatedwith an online store (e.g., shopping.com), the user may be more inclinedto purchase a specimen of the product if the appearance or behavior ofthe selected user interface matches the appearance or behavior of theuser interface of the online store. For example, if the online storesupports only a traditional buying format (e.g., a fixed-price format),the user may be more inclined to purchase a specimen of the product ifthe selected user interface features a fixed price for the specimen. Ifthe user clicks on the advertisement while shopping for specimens of theproduct via a user interface associated with a classified advertisingsystem, the user may be more inclined to purchase a specimen of theproduct if the selected user interface features a classifiedadvertisement listing of the specimen. In other cases, a user interfacethat features an auction pricing format may be most appropriate based onthe user interface context.

The adaption module 212 may create a new user interface to include inthe group of user interfaces, or modify an existing user interfaceincluded in the group of user interfaces, based on a user interfacecontext (e.g., a user interface context identified by thecontextualization module 210). For example, the adaption module 212 maycreate a new user interface for a specimen of a product based on a lackof availability of a user interface in the group of user interfaces thatis optimized for the identified user interface context. Alternatively,the adaption module 212 may adapt an existing user interface in thegroup of user interfaces by, for example, to incorporate an element ofan appearance, behavior, or flow of user activities associated with theuser context into the existing user interface.

The creating of the new user interface or the modifying of the existinguser interface may include selecting at least one user interface element(e.g., a widget) from a group of user interface elements, including userinterface elements related to searching for items, displaying searchresults, refining search results, browsing categories of products,browsing search results, displaying summaries of products, displayingdetailed views of specimens of products, displaying information aboutusers (e.g., sellers or buyers), or setting user preferences. Thecreating or modifying may include determining sizes of user interfaceelements, locations of user interface elements, or arrangements of userinterface elements. The creating or modifying may include incorporatingan appearance or behavior into the new user interface or existing userinterface, respectively, based on the user interface context. Forexample, a user interface element related to displaying a detailed viewof a specimen of a product may be customized to display by default theprice of the specimen of the product in a buying format (e.g., afixed-pricing, auction-pricing, or classified-ad-pricing buying format)that corresponds to the identified user interface context. As anotherexample, the creating or modifying may include incorporating colors,fonts, icons, or other design elements associated with the identifieduser interface context.

The customization module 214 may create a new user interface to includein the group of user interfaces, or modify an existing user interfaceincluded in the group of user interfaces, based on information about theuser (e.g., the information about the user collected by the collectionmodule 204). For example, the customization module 214 may incorporateinto the new user interface or the existing user interface elementsrelated to a transaction history of the user or a profile of the user,including an age of the user, a sex of the user, or other userdemographics.

The transmission module 216 may transmit instructions to the user system124 for the rendering of a user interface by the user system 124. Theuser interface may be the user interface selected by the selectionmodule 206. For example, the transmission module 216 may transmit anHTML document for a web page to the user system 124 for such that a webbrowser application executing on the user system 124 may render the webpage.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example embodiment of thedatabase system 106 of FIG. 1. The database system 106 may include auser database 302, an items database 304, a transaction database 306, anorders database 308, a bids database 310, a feedback database 312, ahistory database 314 or an attributes database 316. The user database302 may include a record for each registered user of the marketplacesystem 104, and may include identifier, address, and financialinstrument information pertaining to each such registered user. A usermay operate as a seller, a buyer, or both, within the marketplace system104. In one example embodiment, a buyer may be a user that hasaccumulated value (e.g., commercial or proprietary currency), and isaccordingly able to exchange the accumulated value for items that areoffered for sale at the marketplace system 104.

The items database 304 may include item records for goods and servicesthat are available to be, or have been, transacted via the marketplacesystem 104. A transaction database 306 may include a record for eachtransaction (e.g., a purchase or sale transaction) pertaining to itemsfor which records exist (e.g., within the items database 304). Theorders database 308 may include order records, with each order recordbeing associated with an order. Each order, in turn, may be associatedwith one or more transactions for which records exist (e.g., within thetransaction database 306).

The bids database 310 may include a bid record for each bid received atthe marketplace system 104 in connection with an auction-format listingof an item. The feedback database 312 may include records containingreputation information concerning users. The history database 314 mayinclude records pertaining to a history of transactions to which a userhas been a party. The attributes database 316 may include recordscontaining attribute information pertaining to items for which recordsexist (e.g., within the items database 304). Considering only a singleexample of such an attribute, the attributes databases 316 may indicatea currency attribute associated with an item, with the currencyattribute identifying the currency of a price for the relevant item asspecified by a seller. Each record within each of the databases may belinked to one or more records within other ones of the database, so asto, for example, associate a seller and one or more actual or potentialbuyers with an item.

The database system 106 may be maintained or associated with the searchengine system 102, the marketplace system 104, or the other systems 108.Additional records may be stored in different databases maintained orassociated with ones of the search engine system 102, the marketplacesystem 104, or the other systems 108. Thus, one of the systems (e.g.,the search engine system 102) may maintain different sets of informationrelating to a potential transaction on the marketplace system 104 (e.g.,information about a user or a user interface context) than another oneof the systems. Nevertheless, as described above, the collection module204 may aggregate the different sets of information maintained by eachof the systems.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an example embodiment of a user record 404included in the user database 302 of FIG. 3. The user record 404includes a field 412 for a user identifier (e.g., the GUID associatedwith the user), a field 414 for uses of search queries, a field 416 forviewings of user-provided information, a field 418 for accesses ofcategories of products, a field 420 for watchings of items, a field 422for viewings of items, a field 424 for watchings of products, a field426 for viewings of products, and a field 428 for viewings of profiles.A watching of an item or is a designating of the item or product by auser as an item or product that the user is monitoring. For example, auser is watching an item if the user adds the item to a watch listwithin the marketplace system 104. A watching of an item may includetaking an action with respect to the item (e.g., viewing the currenthigh bid on the item or placing a bid on the item), viewing other itemsof a seller of the item, or getting notified by email when the status ofa listing of the item changes or the item is relisted. Each of thefields may be linked to additional database fields of the user record404 or a different record (not shown). For example, the field 414 may belinked to additional fields for the sets of keywords used in each of thesearch queries and a number of times each of the sets of keywords wereused. The field 424 may include information regarding each of theproducts (e.g., the names of the products) that were watched and anumber of times each of the products was watched.

FIG. 5 is an example embodiment of a method 500 for providing a userwith a customized online shopping experience. The method 500 may includereceiving 502 an indication of an interest by a user in a product. Theindication may be in the form of a request from an application (e.g., aweb browser application) executing on a user system. The request may befor a marketplace system to transmit instructions to the application fora rendering of a predetermined user interface related to the product.The request may be initiated by a clicking of the user on anadvertisement presented to the user in a user interface associated withthe search engine system 102 or one of the other systems 108. The method500 may include selecting 504 a user interface to present informationrelated to the product. The user interface may be selected from a groupof user interfaces based on various factors, as illustrated in FIG. 6.The method 500 may include transmitting 506 instructions to presentinformation about the product using the selected user interface. Forexample, the method 500 may include transmitting instructions to theapplication to present a user interface related to a specimen of theproduct that is currently for sale on the marketplace system 104.

FIG. 6 is an example embodiment of the selecting 504 operation of themethod 500. The selecting of the user interface 504 may includecalculating 602 a conversion rate of each user interface in a group ofuser interfaces based on at least one of user transaction histories 604,user interface contexts 606, or user profiles 608. For example, thecalculation of the conversion rates may be performed by the selectionmodule 206. The selecting of the user interface 504 may includedetermining 610 a user interface in the group of user interfaces havingthe highest conversion rate.

Modules, Components and Logic

Certain embodiments are described herein as including logic or a numberof components, modules, or mechanisms. Modules may constitute eithersoftware modules (e.g., code embodied on a machine-readable medium or ina transmission signal) or hardware modules. A hardware module is atangible unit capable of performing certain operations and may beconfigured or arranged in a certain manner. In example embodiments, oneor more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client or server computersystem) or one or more hardware modules of a computer system (e.g., aprocessor or a group of processors) may be configured by software (e.g.,an application or application portion) as a hardware module thatoperates to perform certain operations as described herein.

In various embodiments, a hardware module may be implementedmechanically or electronically. For example, a hardware module maycomprise dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured(e.g., as a special-purpose processor, such as a field programmable gatearray (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) toperform certain operations. A hardware module may also compriseprogrammable logic or circuitry (e.g., as encompassed within ageneral-purpose processor or other programmable processor) that istemporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. Itwill be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware modulemechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or intemporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may bedriven by cost and time considerations.

Accordingly, the term “hardware module” should be understood toencompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physicallyconstructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired) or temporarilyconfigured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner and/or toperform certain operations described herein. Considering embodiments inwhich hardware modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed),each of the hardware modules need not be configured or instantiated atany one instance in time. For example, where the hardware modulescomprise a general-purpose processor configured using software, thegeneral-purpose processor may be configured as respective differenthardware modules at different times. Software may accordingly configurea processor, for example, to constitute a particular hardware module atone instance of time and to constitute a different hardware module at adifferent instance of time.

Hardware modules can provide information to, and receive informationfrom, other hardware modules. Accordingly, the described hardwaremodules may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multiplesuch hardware modules exist contemporaneously, communications may beachieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuitsand buses) that connect the hardware modules. In embodiments in whichmultiple hardware modules are configured or instantiated at differenttimes, communications between such hardware modules may be achieved, forexample, through the storage and retrieval of information in memorystructures to which the multiple hardware modules have access (e.g., thedata store). For example, one hardware module may perform an operationand store the output of that operation in a memory device to which it iscommunicatively coupled. A further hardware module may then, at a latertime, access the memory device to retrieve and process the storedoutput. Hardware modules may also initiate communications with input oroutput devices and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection ofinformation).

The various operations of example methods described herein may beperformed, at least partially, by one or more processors that aretemporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured toperform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented modulesthat operate to perform one or more operations or functions. The modulesreferred to herein may, in some example embodiments, compriseprocessor-implemented modules.

Similarly, the methods described herein may be at least partiallyprocessor-implemented. For example, at least some of the operations of amethod may be performed by one or processors or processor-implementedmodules. The performance of certain of the operations may be distributedamong the one or more processors, not only residing within a singlemachine, but deployed across a number of machines. In some exampleembodiments, the processor or processors may be located in a singlelocation (e.g., within a home environment, an office environment or as aserver farm), while in other embodiments the processors may bedistributed across a number of locations.

The one or more processors may also operate to support performance ofthe relevant operations in a “cloud computing” environment or as a“software as a service” (SaaS). For example, at least some of theoperations may be performed by a group of computers (as examples ofmachines including processors), these operations being accessible via anetwork (e.g., the Internet) and via one or more appropriate interfaces(e.g., APIs).

Electronic Apparatus and System

Example embodiments may be implemented in digital electronic circuitry,or in computer hardware, firmware, software, or in combinations of them.Example embodiments may be implemented using a computer program product,e.g., a computer program tangibly embodied in an information carrier,e.g., in a machine-readable medium for execution by, or to control theoperation of, data processing apparatus, e.g., a programmable processor,a computer, or multiple computers.

A computer program can be written in any form of programming language,including compiled or interpreted languages, and it can be deployed inany form, including as a stand-alone program or as a module, subroutine,or other unit suitable for use in a computing environment. A computerprogram can be deployed to be executed on one computer or on multiplecomputers at one site or distributed across multiple sites andinterconnected by a communication network.

In example embodiments, operations may be performed by one or moreprogrammable processors executing a computer program to performfunctions by operating on input data and generating output. Methodoperations can also be performed by, and apparatus of exampleembodiments may be implemented as, special purpose logic circuitry,e.g., a FPGA or an ASIC.

The computing system can include clients and servers. A client andserver are generally remote from each other and typically interactthrough a communication network. The relationship of client and serverarises by virtue of computer programs running on the respectivecomputers and having a client-server relationship to each other. Inembodiments deploying a programmable computing system, it will beappreciated that that both hardware and software architectures requireconsideration. Specifically, it will be appreciated that the choice ofwhether to implement certain functionality in permanently configuredhardware (e.g., an ASIC), in temporarily configured hardware (e.g., acombination of software and a programmable processor), or a combinationof permanently and temporarily configured hardware may be a designchoice. Below are set out hardware (e.g., machine) and softwarearchitectures that may be deployed, in various example embodiments.

Example Machine Architecture and Machine-Readable Medium

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of machine in the example form of a computersystem 700 within which instructions for causing the machine to performany one or more of the methodologies discussed herein may be executed.In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone deviceor may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networkeddeployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or auser system in server-client network environment, or as a peer machinein a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine maybe a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), aPersonal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance,a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executinginstructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be takenby that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated,the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection ofmachines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets)of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein.

The example computer system 700 includes a processor 702 (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU) orboth), a main memory 704 and a static memory 706, which communicate witheach other via a bus 708. The computer system 700 may further include avideo display unit 710 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or acathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system 700 also includes analphanumeric input device 712 (e.g., a keyboard), a user interface (UI)navigation (or cursor control) device 714 (e.g., a mouse), a disk driveunit 716, a signal generation device 718 (e.g., a speaker) and a networkinterface device 720.

Machine-Readable Medium

The disk drive unit 716 includes a machine-readable storage medium 722on which is stored one or more sets of instructions 724 and datastructures (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more ofthe methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 724may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the mainmemory 704 and/or within the processor 702 during execution thereof bythe computer system 700, the main memory 704 and the processor 702 alsoconstituting machine-readable media. The instructions 724 may alsoreside, completely or at least partially, within the static memory 706.

While the machine-readable storage medium 722 is shown in an exampleembodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” mayinclude a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that storethe one or more instructions 724 or data structures. The term“machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include anynon-transitory medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carryinginstructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine toperform any one or more of the methodologies of the present embodiments,or that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying data structuresutilized by or associated with such instructions. The term“machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but notbe limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media.Specific examples of machine-readable media include non-volatile memory,including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EPROM), Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), and flash memory devices;magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks;magneto-optical disks; and compact disc-read-only memory (CD-ROM) anddigital versatile disc (or digital video disc) read-only memory(DVD-ROM) disks.

Transmission Medium

The instructions 724 may further be transmitted or received over acommunications network 726 using a transmission medium. The instructions724 may be transmitted using the network interface device 720 and anyone of a number of well-known transfer protocols (e.g., Hyper TextTransfer Protocol or HTTP). Examples of communication networks include alocal area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet,mobile telephone networks, Plain Old Telephone (POTS) networks, andwireless data networks (e.g., WiFi and WiMax networks). The term“transmission medium” shall be taken to include any intangible mediumthat is capable of storing, encoding or carrying instructions forexecution by the machine, and includes digital or analog communicationssignals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of suchsoftware.

Although an embodiment has been described with reference to specificexample embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications andchanges may be made to these embodiments without departing from thebroader spirit and scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, thespecification and drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative ratherthan a restrictive sense. The accompanying drawings that form a parthereof show by way of illustration, and not of limitation, specificembodiments in which the subject matter may be practiced. Theembodiments illustrated are described in sufficient detail to enablethose of ordinary skill in the art to practice the teachings disclosedherein. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, suchthat structural and logical substitutions and changes may be madewithout departing from the scope of this disclosure. This DetailedDescription, therefore, is not to be taken in a limiting sense, and thescope of various embodiments is defined only by the appended claims,along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims areentitled.

Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred toherein, individually and/or collectively, by the term “invention” merelyfor convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope ofthis application to any single invention or inventive concept if morethan one is in fact disclosed. Thus, although specific embodiments havebeen illustrated and described herein, it should be appreciated that anyarrangement calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substitutedfor the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to coverany and all adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, will be apparent to those of skill in theart upon reviewing the above description.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving at a marketplacesystem a request from a user system to transmit instructions for arendering by the user system of a predetermined user interface relatingto a product; using a processor to select one of a plurality of otheruser interfaces relating to the product, a rendering of the one of theplurality of other user interfaces by the user system having a firstprobability of increasing revenues of a marketplace system, a renderingof the predetermined user interface by the user system having a secondprobability of increasing the revenues of the marketplace system, theselecting based on a determination that the first probability is greaterthan the second probability, the revenues of the marketplace systembased on sales of specimens of the product; and transmitting to the usersystem instructions for the rendering by the user system of the one ofthe plurality of other user interfaces.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein renderings of other ones of the plurality of other userinterfaces have respective other probabilities of increasing revenues ofthe marketplace system and the selecting is based on a determinationthat the first probability is greater than each of the otherprobabilities.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first probabilityis based on a conversion rate of the one of the plurality of other userinterfaces, the conversion rate reflecting a number of renderings of thefirst one of the plurality of other user interfaces in comparison to anumber of the sales of the specimens of the product relating to therenderings.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying auser interface context from which a user performed an action to triggerthe request, the user interface context being one of a plurality of userinterface contexts, the plurality of user interface contexts including acomparison-shopping context; and modifying one of the plurality of otheruser interfaces to include at least one of a plurality of user interfaceelements based on the identifying of the user interface context, theplurality of user interface elements including a search result relatedto the product, the at least one of the plurality of user interfaceelements to exclude the search result based on the user interfacecontext not being the comparison-shopping context.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: collecting information about a user of theuser system, the information including at least one of a profile of theuser and a transaction history of the user, the profile including atleast one of an age of the user and a sex of the user, a first portionof the information maintained by the marketplace system and, a secondportion of the information maintained by a system external to themarketplace system; and customizing at least one of an appearance or abehavior of the one of the plurality of user interfaces based on theinformation.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determination thatthe first probability is greater than the second probability is based ona correlation between characteristics of a user of the user system and aconversion rate of the one of the plurality of user interfaces withrespect to other users having the characteristics, the conversion ratereflecting a number of renderings of the first one of the plurality ofother user interfaces in comparison to a number of the sales of thespecimens of the product relating to the renderings.
 7. The method ofclaim 5, wherein one of the characteristics of the user is a preferenceof one of a plurality of buying formats, the plurality of buying formatsincluding auction-based pricing and seller-fixed pricing, the preferencedetermined based on a transaction history of the user with respect tothe marketplace system.
 8. A system comprising: a processor; a receptionmodule to receive at a marketplace system a request from a user systemto transmit instructions for a rendering by the user system of apredetermined user interface relating to a product; a selection moduleto select one of a plurality of other user interfaces relating to theproduct, a rendering of the one of the plurality of other userinterfaces by the user system having a first probability of increasingrevenues of a marketplace system, a rendering of the predetermined userinterface by the user system having a second probability of increasingthe revenues of the marketplace system, the selecting based on adetermination that the first probability is greater than the secondprobability, the revenues of the marketplace system based on sales ofspecimens of the product; and a transmission module to transmit to theuser system instructions for the rendering by the user system of the oneof the plurality of other user interfaces.
 9. The system of claim 8,wherein renderings of other ones of the plurality of other userinterfaces have respective other probabilities of increasing revenues ofthe marketplace system and the selecting is based on a determinationthat the first probability is greater than each of the otherprobabilities.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the first probabilityis based on a conversion rate of the one of the plurality of other userinterfaces, the conversion rate reflecting a number of renderings of thefirst one of the plurality of other user interfaces in comparison to anumber of the sales of the specimens of the product relating to therenderings.
 11. The system of claim 8, further comprising: acontextualization module to identify a user interface context from whicha user performed an action to trigger the request, the user interfacecontext being one of a plurality of user interface contexts, theplurality of user interface contexts including a comparison-shoppingcontext; and an adaption module to modify one of the plurality of otheruser interfaces to include at least one of a plurality of user interfaceelements based on the identifying of the user interface context, theplurality of user interface elements including a search result relatedto the product, the at least one of the plurality of user interfaceelements to exclude the search result based on the user interfacecontext not being the comparison-shopping context.
 12. The system ofclaim 8, further comprising: a collection module to collect informationabout a user of the user system, the information including at least oneof a profile of the user and a transaction history of the user, theprofile including at least one of an age of the user and a sex of theuser, a first portion of the information maintained by the marketplacesystem and a second portion of the information maintained by an externalsystem, the external system being external to the marketplace system;and a customization module to customize at least one of an appearance ora behavior of the one of the plurality of user interfaces based on theinformation.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the determination thatthe first probability is greater than the second probability is based ona correlation between characteristics of a user of the user system and aconversion rate of the one of the plurality of user interfaces withrespect to other users having the characteristics, the conversion ratereflecting a number of renderings of the first one of the plurality ofother user interfaces in comparison to a number of the sales of thespecimens of the product relating to the renderings.
 14. The system ofclaim 13, wherein one of the characteristics of the user is a preferenceof one of a plurality of buying formats, the plurality of buying formatsincluding auction-based pricing and seller-fixed pricing, the preferencedetermined based on a transaction history of the user with respect tothe marketplace system.
 15. A machine-readable storage medium comprisinginstructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a machine,causes the machine to perform a method comprising: receiving at amarketplace system a request from a user system to transmit instructionsfor a rendering by the user system of a predetermined user interfacerelating to a product; using a processor to select one of a plurality ofother user interfaces relating to the product, a rendering of the one ofthe plurality of other user interfaces by the user system having a firstprobability of increasing revenues of a marketplace system, a renderingof the predetermined user interface by the user system having a secondprobability of increasing the revenues of the marketplace system, theselecting based on a determination that the first probability is greaterthan the second probability, the revenues of the marketplace systembased on sales of specimens of the product; and transmitting to the usersystem instructions for the rendering by the user system of the one ofthe plurality of other user interfaces.
 16. The machine-readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein renderings of other ones of the plurality ofother user interfaces have respective other probabilities of increasingrevenues of the marketplace system and the selecting is based on adetermination that the first probability is greater than each of theother probabilities.
 17. The machine-readable storage medium of claim15, wherein the first probability is based on a conversion rate of theone of the plurality of other user interfaces, the conversion ratereflecting a number of renderings of the first one of the plurality ofother user interfaces in comparison to a number of the sales of thespecimens of the product relating to the renderings.
 18. Themachine-readable storage medium of claim 15, the method comprising:identifying a user interface context from which a user performed anaction to trigger the request, the user interface context being one of aplurality of user interface contexts, the plurality of user interfacecontexts including a comparison-shopping context; and modifying one ofthe plurality of other user interfaces to include at least one of aplurality of user interface elements based on the identifying of theuser interface context, the plurality of user interface elementsincluding a search result related to the product, the at least one ofthe plurality of user interface elements to exclude the search resultbased on the user interface context not being the comparison-shoppingcontext.
 19. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 18, the methodcomprising: collecting information about a user of the user system, theinformation including at least one of a profile of the user and atransaction history of the user, the profile including at least one ofan age of the user and a sex of the user, a first portion of theinformation maintained by the marketplace system and a second portion ofthe information maintained by a system external to the marketplacesystem; and customizing at least one of an appearance or a behavior ofthe one of the plurality of user interfaces based on the information.20. The machine-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein thedetermination that the first probability is greater than the secondprobability is based on a correlation between characteristics of a userof the user system and a conversion rate of the one of the plurality ofuser interfaces with respect to other users having the characteristics,the conversion rate reflecting a number of renderings of the first oneof the plurality of other user interfaces in comparison to a number ofthe sales of the specimens of the product relating to the renderings.